In the two years I’ve lived here, Manchester has really grown on me. When I first came here, I thought the city was ugly: too many old mills, too many ugly looking apartment buildings and all that. But lately I look at the old mills and think, ah! History! I look at the apartment buildings and think, ah! East coast architecture! It’s unique!
But one thing I will never, ever like about Manchester is its chronic inability to celebrate holidays on their proper day. They always have to celebrate it before it actually happens. Memorial day is celebrated either Saturday or Sunday (it’s observed Monday). The Fourth of July is celebrated on the third. St. Patrick’s Day was celebrated roughly two weeks before March 17….sometimes I think the only day they celebrate on the correct day is New Year’s. And that’s only because celebrating it a week early would make it fall on Christmas.
Halloween is no exception, but it’s probably the most ridiculous example. You see, Manchester is the biggest city in New Hampshire. That also makes it the scariest. When I worked in Epping, my co-workers who lived there seemed shocked I made it to work every day in one piece. Since Manchester is the only place in New Hampshire that has a real crime rate, the general impression is that you can’t leave your house after dark without getting mugged/raped/stabbed/shot or just plain murdered. So, in order to keep the Precious Little Snowflakes in Manchester safe, Halloween is celebrated the Sunday before it falls. In the middle of the afternoon.
I never realized how lame Halloween costumes look at 3pm on a Sunday afternoon. They don’t look scary, they just look stupid. I wonder if anyone even bothers with having haunted houses when they hand out candy. What’s the point? They’re not scary if the sun is shining brightly, birds are singing and the sky is the color of blue that just screams “ghosts? Goblins? Humbug!”
At any rate, I forgot Halloween was celebrated on Sunday in the middle of the afternoon. So Haakon didn’t go trick-or-treating (he’s too young for candy anyway). The only reason why I remembered trick-or-treating was going on anyway was because we went grocery shopping and I nearly ran over some parents escorting their kids dressed in funny looking clothes around town–in broad daylight.
Sigh. If I move out of Manchester, it’s going to be because of their lame-ass Halloween policy. I want my kid to be SCARED on Halloween! That’s the whole point!
Filed under: baby
One of the great things about watching a new baby is that it gives you a pretty good idea of how anarchy would work out on an individual scale. You see, Haakon doesn’t quite have complete control over his body. When he was first born, he had a central nervous system which should theoretically tell all the parts of his body what it should do. Unfortunately, it couldn’t tell them anything beyond “flail! Flail madly! Oh, and cry, too, that’s good. Sucking and swallowing is also good…maybe throw in a pee or a poo for good measure!” He couldn’t tell his neck to support his head, or his feet to stay still. Sometimes it seems as though his extremeties are in open rebellion against him.
One day He was laying next to me on the couch with his eyes closed, slowly drifting off while happily sucking away on his pacifier. His hand lay open in front of it. “Awww, look, Lasse, it’s almost as if his hand is holding his pacifier in! Isn’t it cuuuute?” Suddenly, his hand clinched down and gripped his pacifier and started to pull it out of his mouth. Haakon had no idea what was going on and started to suck harder, trying to keep it in. His hand laughed at him and pulled harder while I desperately intervened, knowing that if it fell out, he would wake up and start crying and I’d have to comfort him. But his hand would not loosen its grip and it finally succeeded in pulling out his pacifier. Haakon burst into tears while his hand basked in its triumph. Of course, the only thing I could do was try to pull the pacifier out of his hand and shove it back in his mouth and the only way I could do that was by prying his fingers off one by one and then giving them my own fingers to clutch.
I finally shoved the pacifier back in his mouth, he latched on and started sucking away again, opening his eyes to give me a relieved and wary look. I really can’t wait until he succeeds in bringing his breakway regions under centralized control. I’m not the UN and it’s hard to reign in his hands who, like two-year-olds, always want to “help”
Filed under: Uncategorized
The weekend before last, the heating element in our bedroom sprang a leak, soaking the carpet around it. We called maintence and put a measuring cup under it to try and catch the water. They came and fixed it on Tuesday.
Now, this morning there is a mushroom growing in our bedroom. It’s right next to the wall, about six inches away from the radiator. The carpet underneath it is black.
The mushroom in question
You should also know that I hate mushrooms. I think they’re disgusting horrible fungi and I can’t believe anyone in they’re right minds would eat them. This mushroom, however doesn’t look like the edible type. It looks nasty, with a shaggy head and a white point right in the middle of it. Disgusting.
At any rate, I called the office and told them. The receptionist paused and said she’d put me on with the property manager, who said she’d call and find out what needs to be done. It’s either in the carpet or in the wall. Fun, fun!
Filed under: finance
All the good Depression related distractions have already been invented:
1) Rocky Road ice cream. “Hard Times” and “Breadline” flavor ice creams don’t sound nearly as good.
2) Monopoly. What game are we going to invent this time around? Naitionalization?
During the last Depression, they ended prohibition on alcohol, which helped increase state revenues through the taxation and sale of liquor. Maybe this time they’ll end prohibition on marijuana?
Since “midwives in NH” is one of the top searches people run to find my blog, I figure I might want to write a post about them, to help all you guys out 
New Hampshire is a really good state to be in if you want to have a midwife-attended birth. Unlike a lot of states where midwifery is illegal or where midwives have to work under a physician (Kansas is one such state), New Hampshire allows midwives to practice on their own. Even better, New Hampshire allows lay midwives to practice (known as New Hampshire certified midwives) as well as certified nurse-midwives. The Birth Cottage, where I had my baby, offers both (yay!).
As far as my experience with them goes, I was extremely satisfied and would go there again. Their fee is extremely reasonable when compared to what a hospital birth would cost (Roughtly $3000 for a homebirth and $5000 for a birth at their birth center). Even better than a hospital birth, their fee includes all the prenatal care (excluding blood work and ultrasounds, which are extra), the birth, 4 postnatal checkups (a 1-day and 3-day check up at home, and a 2-week and 6-week check up at the center), and breastfeeding help. What hospital or OBGYN would offer the equivalent?
There are also a lot of other midwives in NH and the easiest way to do this seems to be using the New Hamshire Midwife Association website. They have a listing and a whole lot of other information that will hopefully make your search easier. Good luck!
